Bicycling Magazine

Our local library has a pretty fair collection of magazines. I'm interested in many of them but wouldn't really consider buying or subscribing to them. Being in the publishing business I probably shouldn't admit that.

Over the weekend I took out a back issue of Bicycling Magazine. I've enjoyed riding my bicycle since I was 11 years old. With it I felt that I had the means to explore the whole world. Not having a driver's license, I still feel the same way today. Now, though, I ride more for recreation. Bicycling magazine, was a bit of a shock to me. First of all, I discovered that casual touring cyclists are cruising at 20 - 25 MPH!. On a good day I can do that downhill and mostly I'm averaging 12 - 13 MPH. I always knew that bicyclists were gear heads but the amount of expensive junk advertised was astounding. Also, no one in the magazine seemed to be smiling. They were all into how hard their workouts were and how they needed to improve.

My idea of a fun outing is just having a good destination; preferably a good coffee shop, pancake breakfast, or diner that we take our time getting to and enjoying the scenery along the way. Maybe that's why I have a hard time keeping biking buddies. People start out with me but they soon get faster than I want to go and seek more challenging outings. I may make a concession to this, I've heard that switching from my basket toe clips to the shoe/pedal combination will increase my speed by 2 - 3 MPH. I think that I can handle this and perhaps this will keep me in the pack.